Love never dies
by ilovemusic'forever
Summary: "While life may end, love will never die." Marius Pontmercy came to realise this too late. Here, he visits Éponine's grave and reflects on both his life, and hers.


**Heyyy!**

**I've always loved Les Misérables, and i've gotten obsessed all over again recently!**

**This is a one-shot I feel that could have happened, and in my Les Mis it did happen to Marius.**

**Even if Victor Hugo had other ideas...**

...

Marius snuck out of bed as quietly as he could, for he didn't want to wake his wife of two years.

She had always insisted on accompanying him on these visits. She had always been so concerned with where he went, what he did, everything in his life, and was adamant she was there for everything. She had been excessively clingy, more so than Marius could have thought a woman could be.

Of course, his perspective of women wasn't great. The only woman he was familiar with, that wasn't related, was Éponine, and she was brave, fierce and determined. She didn't need to follow a man around all day to have her fun. She was capable of making her own decisions.

Whereas Cosette...Well, she just trailed around after Marius like a puppy.

So, as he had done every morning for two years, he slid out of bed silently, quickly got dressed and tiptoed down the stairs and out the front door.

As always, he stopped at a small stall at the market and bought white lilies.

And as always, he ran until he reached where she rested.

He pushed forward the small, wooden gate into the weary, isolated graveyard. It wasn't well looked after, it was bleak, and it was there for those who couldn't afford to place graves in fancier graveyards, with elegant gravestones and dedicated messages from loved ones neatly engraved.

But this was completely different from those graves. People were buried here who had no loved ones, who were just buried here because they had to be buried somewhere. They had no visitors. Marius had come to this depressed graveyard everyday for two years, and not once noticed anyone else.

Éponine's was the only grave who had a visitor. Hers was the only grave with flowers, with a small wooden cross and My Dearest 'Ponine scraped into it with a rock.

All the other students who had died, while they have been disowned by their families for the plans and beliefs, now rested in heavily decorated graves. Their families had been reminded of what was truly important.

Éponine and Gavroche's parents had barely been bothered. Yes, they were their children. But they hadn't had a hug, a civil conversation, or a happy time in at least ten years.

The Friends of the ABC were their real family.

And only Marius remained to give them a send off worthy of heros. That was what they truly deserved.

He had made Gavroche a grave, he'd made an effort to give the boy the best he could, and he really truly had.

But it was Éponine who he visited daily, who he lay flowers for.

Once, Cosette had tried to follow him here, and he was outraged.

This was his place, this was his alone time. It was his thing, his place of peace, it was his best friend's grave he visited.

Cosette did not care for the girl. She hardly knew her. Yes, she grew up with her. But that was a long time ago, and both women had changed since. Cosette knew Éponine Thernardier, the spoilt, loved child. She didn't know 'Ponine, the brave, devoted best friend. The selfless, loving, yet unloved, beautiful woman that was hidden beneath the affections of her father.

This was why My Dearest 'Ponine had been scraped onto the pale wooden cross a few days after her tragic death. She changed when her parents had deserted her. Marius couldn't bear to have Thernardier written on her headstone. It would only remind him daily of her disgusting father, her heartless mother, and how he failed to protect her from the violent wrath of her father's gang.

How, when cleaning her blooded wound, he had noticed her torso of bruises, which reflected an artist's palette.

But Cosette coming to Éponine's grave?

Éponine was Marius' best friend! Cosette simply didn't understand. She knew where he disappeared to, surely she knew to leave him alone?

Marius was fed up of how clingy Cosette always was. Her being there, at Éponine's grave, would only remind Marius of the troubles of the last leg of his best friend's life.

How could he be so stupid as to send Éponine with a letter to Cosette? He would have been better letting Cosette go to England, and telling Éponine to go inside somewhere.

Kneeling beside her grave, he chuckled silently to himself.

Éponine? Go inside, and miss the fight?

If only.

He knew she would come back, even if he was too caught up in the fight to notice it. She would always come back to her loved one.

This was a graveyard for those with no loved ones, and Éponine did. She did have a loved one. She had Marius, but he was too stupid to see past Cosette's perfection.

He couldn't deny it, she was pretty.

In fact, she was beautiful.

But she wasn't beautiful on the inside, like his dearest 'Ponine.

Cosette had virtually no personality. He would talk to her for a few minutes in the morning about the weather, or the news, if he wasn't able to avoid her altogether. Over dinner, he would compliment her cooking, and thank her for it. He might talk about how work went, ask her how her day was, then retire to bed, where they lay on opposite sides of the bed, facing away from each other.

He used to talk to 'Ponine for hours about life, music, history, art, politics. She never understood, but she always sat laughing, nodding, curious about what he had to say. He knew they would talk about anything and everything. And he would cook her dinner, then carry her to bed, both laughing as he did. He would cuddle her all night, making sure she was warm, comfortable, and happy. He would lie there for hours admiring her face.

With Cosette, he barely noticed her emerald eyes, her perfectly curled golden hair, her extravagant clothing.

With Ponine, he never noticed the true beauty beneath the scars, the bruises, the dirt, the grime, the hard exterior. He had never noticed the admiring stares, that the Friends of the ABC had always hinted at, that had always been so painfully obvious.

He only wished he had noticed. He supposed he had noticed Cosette because she was bright and beautiful, a light in the darkness of their lives.

Éponine fit in perfectly with the darkness of his life. She, her brother, and people like her were who they fought for. Cosette stood out, but once all of the students and 'Ponine were out of his life, his grandfather and his wife had forced him back into his old social status. Now, surrounded by beautiful women and rich men on a daily basis, Cosette no longer stood out.

It was Éponine.

As he placed the flowers gently upon her grave, Marius realised, it had always been Éponine.

His 'Ponine.

As she'd always longed to be, as he now knew she should have been.

As she would have been, had he not been stupid enough to send her off with the letter for Cosette.

Éponine would do anything for him. She brought a letter to the girl he was infatuated with, in the height of her love for him, even though it killed her, in every sense of the word.

He came back daily in the hope it might bring her back to him. That it might bring her home, into his arms, where she belonged.

The guilty survivor leant forward to place a gentle kiss upon his name for her. He silently whispered his love for her against the rough wood of the headstone that honoured her.

Just as he had done every day for two years.


End file.
